


fleetingly

by springhibiscus



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Drabble Collection, Gen, Multi, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Timeskip, Spoilers, backstory time!, i love dimitri alexandre blaiddyd also i dont know why im tagging this i just gotta say it, just something to dump all my misc ideas in, not always canon compliant... we'll see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-09-23 00:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20330686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springhibiscus/pseuds/springhibiscus
Summary: Short moments in time. Drabble collection for FE3H.





	1. flowers at dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dimitri delivers some flowers.

“The weather is quite nice today," Dimitri comments. The wind ruffles his clothes and hair, gentle in the early morning. “I hope you are doing well. And… I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit lately. Atonement is tiring work, but I owe it to you and everyone else to make up for my crimes.

“Ah, and I've brought you some flowers. Dedue was kind enough to allow me to pick them from his personal garden... His skill in gardening never ceases to amaze me.”

“I’ll visit again soon,” he promises to the engraved stone, and sets the flowers down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 100 words or less... *dies*


	2. avoidance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for Chapter 9.

Hilda casts a worried glance at her. “Professor, it’s good to see you again. I know you're strong, but I'm worried about Leonie… This is really hard on her. She loved Jeralt so much.”

Byleth clenches and unclenches her fists, exhaling slowly.

How dare she. How dare Leonie think she is feeling anything  _ close _ to the grief that Byleth is experiencing. How dare she think that her mentor dying is on the same scale as the death of Byleth’s  _ father. _

If anything, she expects Leonie to blame her for Jeralt’s death.

Later, at the fishing pond, she pointedly avoids Leonie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shoutout to leonie for calling byleth ungrateful in both her c and b support (where she was trying to apologize)
> 
> i hope Leonie gets better. I'm trying really hard to like her, I promise, but she's just so... );|


	3. absence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth is unable to find Edelgard and Hubert.

For the third time this week, Byleth cannot find Edelgard. Or Hubert. The frequency at which they are leaving the monastery grounds is concerning, to say the least.

Perhaps something is wrong in the Empire. But if there was an emergency, surely the prime minister could handle it. If the situation was dire enough to require the two students’ help, wouldn't the church have been alerted first?

Byleth hums as she walks away from the dormitory, away from Edelgard and Hubert’s empty rooms. She’ll have to catch up with the two later.

Today, she’ll dine with Petra and Dorothea instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've only played blue lions route , so idk if its different if you teach the black eagles. All I know is that Ferdie mentions Edelgard and Hubert coming and going a lot in month 2....


	4. nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dimitri has a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set pre-timeskip. gender-neutral byleth despite the 3 previous drabbles w f!byleth!! haha... ha... oops
> 
> i've pretty much given up on the 100-word drabble thing because i am a clown. I wrote most of this pre-release, just very briefly checked it over, revised, and finished it, so I apologize if there's any story inconsistencies!!!

Once, there was a royal family.

One day there, the next, all but wiped out.

The only survivor of the assassination is the young crown prince. 

_ The poor thing _ , the people whisper among themselves. _ To lose his entire family in one night. And at such a young age, too. Fourteen is too young to have gone through such a thing, don't you think? _

He grits his teeth, and stiffly accepts condolences and empty sympathy from other noble houses. He knows what they want. The crown. They want to rule the Holy Kingdom, and they think he's naive enough to hand it over.

Like hell he will. The uncle he'd forgotten about will do until he becomes of age, and old enough to wield the power he's been born to succeed.

He trains. He wants to get stronger, _ no, _ he _ has _to get stronger. He works furiously on his lance skills at day, and studies about subjects from diplomacy to Fòdlan’s history by night. 

It’s tiring work. But he perseveres. If Sylvain, Ingrid, or Felix notice the bags under his eyes, they don't draw attention to it.

* * *

One day, there is a large group of rebels, and the next, they're dead. By Dimitri and his battalion’s hands.

That's enough to put him back in the unfortunate spotlight of Faerghus’ people.

_ Did you hear? The Crown Prince is an amazing fighter. He was able to eliminate that group of rebels who have been causing trouble near the eastern border, with less than half the amount of fighters the enemy had! _

It was nothing special, in Dimitri’s eyes. He just did what he had to.

Felix acts colder than usual to him after his battle.

After three weeks, they are more or less back to being friends. But the nickname of “the boar” starts to set in, amongst Felix’s ever sharpening tongue.

* * *

One day, he meets a young man from Duscur. 

He knows, without a doubt, with every fiber of his being, that the people of Duscur are innocent. He knows.

They were not the ones behind the tragedy. He knows this, but no one believes him. Dimitri does not know who was the true instigator of the assasination. The people of Faerghus needed someone to blame, and Dimitri doesn’t have enough power to convince anyone.

(Dimitri is guilty, in a way. Dedue is a kind, gentle soul, despite what his outward appearance makes him seem like, and Dimitri finds out very quickly that Dedue’s family was killed in the genocide that shortly followed the tragedy. He is guilty, because he knows that the people of Duscur are innocent. And yet he could not stop the bloodshed that arose.)

When he makes Dedue his retainer, he knows that the people do not understand. They don’t understand why he has made someone from Duscur essentially his bodyguard.  
  
(He _ will _ prove the people of Duscur innocent, one day. It is not just something he wants to do, but _ must _ do.)

* * *

One night, Dimitri has a nightmare.

He’s gotten used to them. Since the day of the assassination, he’s had them almost every night. But this one is worse than usual.

It’s the dead of night. A village is on fire, and there is only one person out there he can see other than himself.

Byleth.

He is rooted to his spot as he watches, with growing horror, as his professor runs into a burning house, aiming to rescue the people screaming for help inside.

There is no way anyone, even Byleth, with their finely honed faith and reason magic skills can survive direct flames like that. No amount of cloaking or self-healing can protect one from those kind of burns, or the special kind of pain fire delivers.

(And he is helpless, just like four years ago during the tragedy.)

Once he wakes up, he doesn't manage to get any more sleep than night.

The next morning, in class, he has a hard time hiding his lack of sleep from frankly _ anyone _ who takes a glance at him. 

He catches Dedue monitoring him during class. Ingrid offers him some sweets during lunch break, studying his body language the entire time. Sylvain goes an entire hour without making a joke related to women or a jab at Dimitri’s expense.

Felix regards him coldly, but for once refrains from calling him “the boar”.

After hours of struggling to stay awake, Byleth pulls him aside at the end of afternoon classes, concern etched into the eyes of their normally expressionless face.

“You didn't sleep well last night, did you.” they state, frowning slightly, and guilt settles into his heart once again.

“No, Professor,” he confesses, “In truth, it was a nightmare that kept me awake. I am deeply sorry if I have been disrupting you or any of my fellow students today—”

“A nightmare. Was it the one you've spoken of before, revolving around what happened in Duscur?”

“Last night’s… wasn't,” he says carefully, hoping (praying) that he's been hiding the secretive glances to check on Byleth he’s been subconsciously making since the morning. “They’ve always been bad, but this one was particularly… awful, I think. I've had the same nightmare for years now, but it was… very different.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He cracks a slight smile at their offer.

“Thank you, professor. Though… it might take a while.”

Byleth pats his shoulder comfortingly. “I have time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mr. blaiddyd... how very sexy of him to have an entire route that is just the Dimitri Show
> 
> i promise i will write/post actual dimileth stuff soon...... i just gotta channel my inner Self-Proclaimed Romance Expert Sylvain Jose Gautier


End file.
